Hospitals deliver care to patients across the globe at a continuum of cost points. In developed countries, information acquisition to aid in the planning and delivery of care is generally possible with infrastructure investment having internal rates of return exceeding 25%. In developing locations, lack of capital reduces expenditure on infrastructure except for the actual facility or clinical treatment apparatus. Yet, labor is far less costly than in developed regions, thereby enabling manual information acquisition at cost points that are economically justified. A need exists in all markets to provide quality care at a cost point that is sustainable. Current systems provide methods for attaining patient status and delivering decision support as based on subjective input from hospital personnel and to a small extent, a patient's visitors when able to communicate effectively to the hospital staff. Where limited infrastructure is in place to collect patient information, information is lacking or not available to improve processes, facilitate care delivery and improve patient satisfaction. In addition, the use of subjective data input and any support systems typically fail to achieve a safe, high throughput capacity; and fail to have the objective data or infrastructure to minimize unavailable capital investment funds. Furthermore, in measures for clinical/patient protocols are inconsistent. The current systems acquire information through note-taking and deliver care based on individual hospital personnel notations in the medical record, and sometimes via subjective visitor feedback.
In developed regions, such as in the United States, health systems have financial reimbursement incentives to deliver a patient experience those patients deem as above average. Additionally, reimbursements are increasingly made in ‘pay for performance’ business models. As such, the clinical care quality must follow best practice protocols in order to avoid adverse hospital acquired conditions that will not be reimbursable. Further still, health institutions themselves increasingly serve as the insurer and therefore have strong financial incentives to enable better clinical outcomes, sooner. Therefore, capacity management, asset utilization, care delivery and patient experiences play a vital role in an environment where productivity proves paramount for financial vitality.
In developing regions, the most pressing need is to serve regional populations with capacity at very low cost points. Health systems do not have the capital to install clinical or operational infrastructure that would in turn improve the outcomes and productivity of their hospitals and clinics.
Hospital networks have various costs. A radiofrequency (RFID) system typically requires a plethora of stations for radio signal acquisition and/or triangulation. Other embodiments have infrared (IR) triggers, which then begin communication bursts for location establishment; such infrastructure, however, is more costly and involves possible interruption of clinical care during installation and maintenance. Tags, placed on care providers, patients and clinical assets are active or passive. The active tags are typically battery powered and can be re-used; thereafter, ongoing costs escalate as related to cleaning, workflow, shrinkage, and loss (as patients at discharge may not realize a personalized RFID unit is with them as they leave). Taken together, these systems can cost several hundred to several thousand dollars per room. The one time capital cost for base capability and the lifecycle costs of tag, battery and maintenance erodes the economic return related to the benefits of higher patient satisfaction, reduced adverse events, a reduction in missed consumables and improvements in protocol delivery.
Thus, a shared need exists across health systems globally to acquire location and state data of patients, physical assets, consumables, and staff while also providing interactive decision support to patients, staff, and various care stakeholders. The desirable system will increase productivity while also improving outcomes and a patient's experience.
A system is desired that would address the needs in monitoring overall patient care and patient satisfaction during a patient's hospitalization, from admittance through discharge. The system would be implemented with current systems including alerts and alarms as integrated in temporary, urgent and critical care, but also incorporate an ongoing real-time monitoring with a deliverable output report that objectively identifies provider-patient interaction, routine care, clinician-patient contact, ongoing contact with other individuals (in-hospital staff or family/friends), connectivity or disconnectivity with a network connection, and benefits or drawbacks as realized and associated with costs. The real-time monitoring system would be capable of storage, analysis, and reporting of select data as accessed and retrieved through a confidential network, using broadly commercially available assets.
The invention disclosed in the following addresses the issues as indicated above and further resolves the need for clinical systems that currently lack the monitoring and analytical capabilities that would prevent patient dissatisfaction and identify interactions that benefit a patient and his/her care plan.